Makes you wonder, honestly.

Could we have won more wins with Kirk Cousins being starter all season long??
byu/Rambo_1027 infalcons

48 comments

  1. Valid points.

    Still a bad contract.

    Still atrocious resource management to have both Cousins on that contract and Penix on the team.

  2. Porbably not, lets not forget Kirk play a good amount of games this season already and only looked good in one of them. Don’t let talking heads clip farming and recency bias get to you

  3. These fools didn’t watch him all last year and didn’t watch games outside TNF this year. Kirk has looked like CHEEKS besides this game and the two games last year against Tampa. 
    Raheem ain’t him. 

  4. I kinda think we would. While Kirk hasn’t looked great in most of his games, the offense feels like it flows better than when Penix is in.

  5. Kirk is prone to playing like ass just like Penix has been. Idk if Kirk’s vet status saves us from a whole year of having the most predictable play calling in the league.

  6. No, it doesn’t make me wonder at all. Who played the Dolphins game again? Who got benched at the end of last season? Cool, we beat the Bucs and the Saints, big fucking deal. 

  8. There’s like 1 or two games at most that penix could take a bulk of the blame for losing & that’s a reach .. qb play wasnt even like a top 5 issues in most of our losses with penix

  9. Before his shoulder injury this was a Top 10 offense last season. Kirk also hasnt played a single game this year with London in the lineup. Of course Kirk wouldve done better in some games this year. He is healthier and would be in year 2 of knowing the offense.
    Kirks the better QB and its not even close, Penix overall qb rating before his injury was worse than Rattler and Fields. Lotta issues with this team all around but absolutely this team has more wins if Kirk was the starter and possibly fighting for the division. But thats really all irrelevant. The Kirk/Penix fiasco has been a fkn disaster and embarrassment from Day 1.

  11. We had Kirk Cousins vs the Jets and lost.

    Love Kirk, and he’s very good vs the Bucs, but doubt our season is very different if he were the starter

  12. We have looked bad with kirk out there just like penix

    Hell, we have lost to both the jets and dolphins with kirk playing every down

    Maybe we win another game just because kirk has been in the league longer, but the quarterback position has not been the biggest reason for our offense woes

  13. I don’t know why people act like this is Cousins’s first start this year. He’s had some subpar games. In fact, I remember the conversation after his first start this year being that despite the loss, it at least killed any QB controversy. You could plausibly blame our poor receiver depth, but people skip that step.

  14. In short, No. Cousins could not move or make simple passes at one point. He looks much healthier now, FWIW. given what we saw from Penix in sample size last year? They had to see. The predictable scheme failed Penix and the team as a whole, development included. Cousins should look like the 10+ year veteran that he is. I’m not shocked that he’s fundamentally better than Penix. He Should be.

  15. I don’t believe that Kirk can overcome all the challenges the Falcons have. He was lucky to over came the Challenges with the Bucs. The false start penalties, the inconsistent kicking game, the poor special teams play. 99 times out of 100 they lose that Tampa Bay game to be fair.

  16. Could QB who only plays a handful of great games a year turn the falcons into a playoff powerhouse?

    Nah. This game was delayed Kirktober since he didn’t get to play in September 

  17. If Penix started this game, would the Falcons have won.

    Would they have been under center or would it have gone back to all pistol and shotgun? Let’s say +- 2 penalties.

    I’m thinking no.

    Either way, there is no definitive answer about who is starting the season at QB next season.

    Still don’t know if they ruined Penix.

  18. Yes let’s forget about the whole season and just base it off 1 game. In conclusion, Kyle pitts is a hall of famer and Kirk cousins is prime Tom Brady. This sub is hilarious

  19. God prime time games just have a crazy effect on the narrative it’s so insane to see every time.

  21. Absolutely, no knock on Penix but he’s still a rookie who was playing over his head while cousins, when he’s healthy is one of the best game generals in the sport

  22. This take is just dumb, people have the memories of goldfish I swear. The loses sit on the OC, the STC and especially the HC, we lost because of them far more than the QB play and if we want Penix to succeed we need to have coaching in place that can actually help him.

  23. The QB question is as old as football. I can remember the same debate except the names were June Jones and Steve Bartkowski. That one was pretty foolish too. Jeff George vs Bobby Hebert (under HC June Jones, coincidentally). Michael Vick vs Matt Schaub. That really happened. The thing is, these seemed like legitimate debates at the time.

  24. Cousins sucks and it would have been brain dead to come into the season with him as the QB. Has he played 1 good game against a team other than the Bucs?

  26. Are you asking if the experienced and still good QB could possibly be better at some things than the new QB?

    I would surely say yes. But isn’t Penix about the future also?

  27. Kirk is a Bucs merchant, simple as that. We should not be making any judgment calls about anyone based on a single game. This also applies to Pitts.

  28. Yes, undoubtedly the season would’ve been better with Kirk. If you don’t think so, probably delusional or just a Penix meat rider.

    But ANYONE who was associated with the decisions or draft Penix or paying Kirk needs to be fired. Those are probably two of the worst back to back decision in the history of the NFL

  30. Kirk and Drake have not played 1 full game together all year, Kirk would cover a lot of Zach’s terrible play calls

  31. No. This is stupid. We forget he’s been playing since September? He’s already started most of the season. And sucked. That was his only real good game in a Falcons uni. Everyone just has forgotten the eggs this dude has laid all year.

  32. Yes, KC should have started every game. But the coaches were in a tight spot having drafted MP #8. We have complete idiots running our franchise. We will live in pain as long as stay.

  34. No, older quarterbacks can string a game or two together but as the season wore on he was going break down

  35. Kirk cousins shows up for only a few games all season and the rest he plays like shit.

  39. The biggest boon with Cousins is that once he got healthy he wasn’t to to stick with Zac’s debilitating addiction to the pistol formation. Cousins loves play action from under Center, while Penix has basically never gone into that formation. If you guys get a new OC for 2026, they need to drill Penix with under Center plays, realign his throwing platform, and get him more comfortable targeting the middle of the field.

  43. These guys hadn’t paid any attention to Atlanta before this game. I’m so tired of talking heads and former players having a “take”. It’s exhausting. Give me SportsCenter and highlights. All these opinions wreck sports.

  44. Kirk has been TERRIBLE the entire season and everyone seems to forget all that because of one good game

  46. Koo missed kick against the bucs after penix drove down field to give us a chance to tie, romo missed extra point which should have tied the game after penix td drive, colts convert a 3rd and 24 after penix td drive to take the lead. 🤷‍♀️

  47. Kirk still sucks, but the thing is with him we run a completely different offense with him than penix. Any time penix is in the ball only goes to 3 people Drake,Pitts or bijan and it all comes from pistol

  48. I think it’s “possible” if Kirk started the whole year the Falcons could still be in the playoff hunt, potentially have won the division, and maybe in an absolute miracle, won a single playoff game or something. It’s also possible things would have gone more or less the same or even slightly worse. Kirk didn’t get first team reps like Penix. Last year the Falcons were 6-3 before Kirk hurt his shoulder and could’ve easily had a much worse record. They won very close games in which they had good to great (and clutch) QB play.

    I think the hope was Penix might be really good. He wasn’t horrible but I think there are serious question marks about his entire NFL career given his injury history. If he has another season ending injury before he puts together a full season as an above average starter his days as an NFL starter are probably over.

    IMO, the Falcons really just screwed up trying to sign a vet to a huge multi-year contract and taking a first round QB. If Kirk didn’t have Penix waiting in the wings last year maybe he rests his injured shoulder, the Falcons win the division, who knows. And for Penix, it’s not great to have to start with a highly paid vet QB that was playing at a pro bowl level a couple years prior sitting on the bench.

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